Photo Gallery: The Thunder Rolls
August 23, 2010
Residents in northern portion of Escambia County were treated to some unusual cloud formations Sunday afternoon as storms pounded the area from Molino south. The photos on this page and in our gallery were taken from South Highway 99, about six miles south of Walnut Hill.
The storms caused scattered power outages across the area, downed a few small trees and at least home on Blanc Lane in Molino was reported to be struck by lightning. There was no major damage reported in that incident.
Pictured top and inset: Our cameras caught two distant lightning strikes as storm clouds moved across the Molino area Sunday afternoon. Pictured below: The cloud formations associated with the thunderstorms. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Cheat Sheet: Quick Back To School Facts You Need To Know
August 23, 2010
Here’s a last minute cheat sheet on things you need to know for back to school:
School Start Times Are The Same
Elementary schools in Escambia County have a morning start time of 7:45 and an afternoon dismissal time of 2:00. The earliest students can be dropped off at the elementary schools — including Bratt, Molino Park, Byrneville and Jim Allen — is 7:20.
At Ernest Ward Middle School, the morning start time will be 9:05 and the afternoon dismissal will be 3:45. The earliest students can be dropped off will be 8:55. Most of the other middle schools in the county, including Ransom, will have a 9:20 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. school day.
At Northview High School, the school day will run 8:45 a.m. to 3:20 p.m. The earliest students will be allowed on campus will be 8:30. The other high schools in the county will run 8:30 a.m. to 3:05 p.m.
Click here for a complete schedule for all Escambia County schools.
Buses Run At Different Times Too
Since school starts at the time this year, buses will run at about the same time. Questions about your child’s bus? Call your child’s school or click here for a schedule.
Breakfast and Lunch Cost The Same
The bottom line for food remains the same this year — breakfast and lunch prices are:
- Elementary Breakfast: $1, full; $0.30, reduced; $1.80, adult.
- Elementary Lunch: $2, full; $0.40, reduced; $3, adult.
- Middle/High Breakfast: $1.50, full; $0.30, reduced; $1.80, adult.
- Middle/High Lunch: $2.50, full; $0.40, reduced; $3, adult.
Students that qualified for free and reduced price meals last year must complete an application again this year. Look for an application to be sent home with your child during the first week, or apply online.
You Can Pay For Meals Online
You can prepay for your child’s breakfast and lunch at mealpayplus.com. You’ll need their student number. That will be sent home with your child, or you can call your school to get it. You can use any major credit card or a check. It’s the cost of the number of meals you choose plus a small service charge per student. But there’s no sending money to school and hoping it arrives or is spent for lunch.
The Breakfast And Lunch Menu
Here is the breakfast and lunch menu for elementary students for the first two days of school:
The elementary menu for breakfast on the first day of school will be Pop Tart, cheese wedge and mixed fruit. The lunch menu will be Mandarin chicken, grilled cheese, sticky rice, broccoli and peaches. Day two, Tuesday, will have breakfast pizza and pears in the morning. For lunch on the second day, the menu includes corn dog, chicken Alfredo, fresh fruit, garden salad and french bread.
Featured specials in middle and high school for Monday include chicken Alfredo, classic chicken tender salad and corn dogs . Tuesday’s menu includes chicken potato bowl, beef teriyaki wrap or cheese burger.
For the rest of the week, click here.
The Rules And The Dress Code
Each student will receive a copy of the Escambia County Student Rights and Responsibilities Handbook during the first few days of school. Take a moment to look at; it can save one of those unwanted calls from the principal.
The school day dress code for students in grades 6-12 now applies to every activity after school too, even ball games. Leave the short shorts and baggy pants at home.
If you are just dying to read the handbook before it comes home with your child, click here for middle and high school or click here for elementary.
Communications
Communications is a two way street. Make sure you have your child’s school phone number in your cell phone in case you need it one day.
Make sure your child’s school has correct phone numbers for you, both your landline and cell phones. There will be forms sent home the first few days of school asking for the information, and you can send a note to your child’s teacher anytime.
Speaking of the teacher, ask him or her for their extension number at school, and trade email addresses with them. That way you have easy access to your child’s teacher(s).
And don’t fall for the cell phone temptation. Students of any age can have their cell phone at school, but it must be turned off between the first and last bell. Vibrate is not off.
Checkout List
Make sure you have an updated list of people allowed to check your child out of school. You don’t want to send grandma to school to checkout the kids for her to be told no. The names will go on that blue card the school sends home during the first week.
Get Your John Hancock Ready
Check the book bags. There will be lots of papers to fill out and sign during the first week. Make sure they are returned to school.
Fall Break And Holidays
If you are planning ahead for Fall Break, don’t expect it to be a long one this year. One again, the school district has taken the normal Thursday and Friday Thanksgiving break and tossed Wednesday in for a three day Fall Break. It will be November 24-26. The first holiday of the year will be Monday, September 6 for Labor Day.
Last Day Of School
Ready for next summer again? The last day of school will be 180 days of school away – Friday, June 3, 2010.
Escambia Deputies Investigate Cantonment Home Invasion
August 23, 2010
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a Cantonment home invasion.
A homeowner woke up Sunday morning to find a man inside his home with a gun. The gun reportedly came from the homeowner’s truck outside the residence on River Annex Road.
The incident occurred about 5:15 a.m. Deputies said the man tried to rob the homeowner at gunpoint. After demanding money, the suspect fled. A Sheriff’s K-9 unit attempted to track the man, but they were unable to locate him.
FOR AN UPDATE TO THIS STORY, CLICK HERE.
Further details were not available. If you have any information on this home invasion, contact Gulf Coast Crime Stoppers at (850) 433-STOP.
New Memorial Honors Veterans
August 23, 2010
A new monument in Atmore honors veterans from across the area.
The memorial, a two-year joint project of the Atmore Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Atmore American Legion Post 90, was created by Weaver Monument Company in Flomaton. It was erected this week in front of the Atmore City Hall.
The monument honors deceased veterans from a different branch of service on each of its four sides.
For a photo gallery showing each side of the monument, click here.
NorthEscambia.com photo, click to enlarge.
Tropical Storm Danielle Update
August 22, 2010
![[Image of 5-day forecast and coastal areas under a warning or a watch]](http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/storm_graphics/AT06/refresh/AL0610W5_NL+gif/203013W5_NL_sm.gif)
Tropical Storm Danielle formed in the Atlantic Sunday afternoon, and forecasters now say it will become a hurricane by late Tuesday.
The National Hurricane Center said the fourth named storm of the 2010 season was over the eastern Atlantic, about 725 miles from the southernmost Cape Verde Islands. But there is good news in the forecast — the Hurricane Center calls for the storm to make a northwesterly turn into the Atlantic, far from the United States.
The latest information on the storm is in the graphic above.
Special Section: Complete Back To School Info
August 22, 2010
School starts Monday in Escambia County, and we have the last minute information you need to know, including start times, school supply lists, lunch prices, bus routes, information on free and reduced price lunches and health requirements.
Click a link to visit that story.
- School Start Times
- School Lunch Prices
- Free And Reduced Lunch Guidelines
- School Lunch Menus
- School Supply Lists
- School Bus Routes
- Health Requirements
Teachers Get Ready For First Day
August 22, 2010
School bells ring Monday in Escambia County. Teachers returned to class last week to make sure everything was ready for the big first day. Pictured: Ernest Ward science and math teacher Michelle Thomas (top), Ernest Ward family and consumer science teacher Kathleen Ellis and Byrneville Elementary School first grade teacher Candi Thorton worked hard Friday afternoon to complete preparations for the start of school. NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Hendrix, Williams To Wed
August 22, 2010
Mr. and Mr. Russell L. Hendrix, Molino, are pleased to announce the engagement of their daughter, Leslee Faye, to Mr. Jordan Williams of Pensacola.
The bride-elect is a graduate of Tate High School and Florida State University where she earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Secondary English Education. Leslee is a teacher at Tate High School.
The prospective groom is a graduate of Pine Forest High School and Pensacola Junior College where he earned his Associate of Applied Science Degree in Nursing. Jordan is a Registered Nurse at Baptist Hospital. He also serves as a Corporal in the United States Marine Corps Reserves and recently returned from a deployment to Afghanistan.
They will be married November 6, 2010, at Flamingo Road Church in Pensacola.
Panhandle Republicans Like What Scott Is Saying
August 22, 2010
Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott was in Escambia County Saturday, one of several stops in the Panhandle. His first campaign stop was at The Coffee Cup in Pensacola to meet with dozens of supporters.
If resident Leon Delikat is any indication, Attorney General Bill McCollum’s focus on Rick Scott’s history with Columbia Healthcare/HCA in their contentious primary for the Republican gubernatorial nomination will not carry McCollum to victory Tuesday.
Delikat said there have been so many charges in the harsh GOP primary that it is hard to determine which ones to believe.
“In today’s climate, you don’t know what’s true and what’s not,” he told the News Service of Florida after listening to a roughly 10 minute speech Scott gave to about 150 people Saturday.
McCollum has focused in television commercials and on the stump on Scott’s tenure as CEO of Columbia Healthcare/HCA, which was investigated for Medicare and Medicaid fraud and paid more than $1.7 billion to settle civil suits and in fines. As Scott spoke Saturday, two McCollum supporters – one dressed in medical scrubs, another in prison stripes – walked through the crowd holding signs referencing a Scott deposition in a lawsuit filed by a former employee of another of his companies, Solantic.
Scott has said he takes responsibility for mistakes that were made at Columbia and he said he will not release the deposition, calling it a “private matter.” McCollum has accused him of hiding the truth.
The attacks have not swayed Delikat.
“The government has got all the regulations of all these hospitals, so you can (not) be aware of things that are going on with your paperwork and all that stuff and you could end having to pay fines like a lot of other people in every industry,” he said.
McCollum’s ads may not have turned Delikat against Scott, but a recent Scott ad criticizing McCollum seemed to work with another resident who came to hear the Naples businessman speak Saturday. Explaining why he was supporting Scott, Sam Slay echoed a tough ad Scott released tying McCollum to former Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer, who was arrested after being accused of funneling party money to himself by hiring his own company as a fundraising consultant for the party.
In the ad, which features footage of Greer introducing McCollum at an early campaign event, Scott says McCollum wanted to hide GOP financial records. Slay repeated the charges almost verbatim.
“He said I don’t know that his records need to be public,” he said. “I don’t know the details of that but the second statement was open government is not what we need, you can make more deals in secrecy. I don’t know if that’s a Freudian slip, (but) we do need open government. If you’re doing the right thing, why do you care?”
Slay said he was also bothered by McCollum’s inconsistency on whether Florida should have an Arizona-style illegal immigration law. McCollum initially said that he supported the law, but did not think requiring police to check immigrants’ IDs is much different from what they’re already allowed to do. He later released legislation similar to the Arizona law with Rep. William Synder, R-Stuart, after Scott criticized him for being soft on the issue.
“He said he was against the immigration law for Arizona, then he comes out (and says) ‘oh no I’m for that,’ when he clearly said he was against it, and it was his voice, it wasn’t somebody saying it in bad press,” Slay said.
Slay said he did not think Rick Scott was the perfect candidate for governor. He just thinks Scott is better for the job than McCollum, he said.
“I think probably one of the things we need is probably something different in Tallahassee,” he said. “The incumbents are not doing what they should be doing. It’s time to take a chance. Sometimes you look at candidates and say ‘how many of them would you walk through fire for?’ That’s not really the issue. The issue is who do you think is going to do you the most good.”
Slay said he liked Scott’s promise to forgo the $133,000 a year salary paid to the governor if he were elected. The multi-millionaire doesn’t really need the money, he said.
“He’s not going there for the money,” he said. “He’ll get in there and do something that he wants to do and then he’ll get out and move on. That’s one of the reasons I like him.”
In his speech, which Slay said Scott kept “short, sweet and to the point,” the first-time candidate did not address any of the issues Slay and Delikat – or McCollum – were talking about. He talked about jobs he held as a child and in the Navy, but said very little about either of the companies McCollum has tried to make into liabilities in the governor’s race.
“I started working at a young age. I had a TV Guide franchise by the time I was (in the) second grade, I delivered newspapers, I had a yard route,” he told the crowd. “I’ve built a variety of businesses. I’ve always been in business from a hospital company to the first health care cable channel to manufacturing companies. Everything I’ve done is figure out how to build companies and take care of customers and build private sector jobs. That’s what we need.”
After the speech, Scott said that he was not worried the election would be decided by the controversies that McCollum has raised repeatedly in the campaign.
“In the end, this election is going to be over who does the voter believe is going to help them get a job or keep their job and it’s an easy choice,” he said. “My opponent’s never created a private sector job, that’s all I’ve done all my life.”
By Keith Laing
The News Service Florida
Photo courtesy WEAR for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Featured Recipe: Chicken Fried Steak
August 22, 2010
This weekend’s featured recipe from Janet Tharpe is Chicken Fried Steak that the whole family with love. Serve with mashed potatoes or cornbread, and you have a real down-home meal your whole family with love.
To print today’s “Just a Pinch” recipe column, you can click the image below to load a printable pdf with a recipe card.
